Portsmouth hockey team hitting stride after rough start

Josh Krueger Daily News staff writer

Friday

Mar 9, 2018 at 12:01 AMMar 9, 2018 at 11:06 PM

PORTSMOUTH — Christian Schenck called them “dirty goals.”

They look the same as the clean ones on the scoreboard, and Schenck had three of them on Friday night. The first hat trick of the season came at a great time for the Portsmouth High School hockey team, which beat Ponaganset 5-2 in the opener of their best-of-three Division II playoff series at Portsmouth Abbey School.

Game 2 is Sunday at 3 p.m. at Levy Rink in Burrillville. If necessary, Game 3 would be played Monday at Portsmouth Abbey.

“Dirty goals, a lot of lucky bounces. The hockey gods were looking over us tonight,” Schenck said. “Just grinding in front of the net, cycling the puck down low, lots of dirty goals.

“We’re just a never-say-die team. Came back from a rough start early in the year and we’re rolling now.”

Schenck wasn’t on the ice for that rough start, when the Patriots lost four of their first five games. He broke his collarbone before the season and was sidelined until January.

“He showed up every day, was a voice for the guys when he was on the bench. It’s great to see him get back into it and, senior year, first playoff game, to be able to do that,” Portsmouth coach Bryan Kriner said of Schenck. “It’s well deserved for all the effort he’s put in. He’s finally starting to find his legs and it’s showing on the scoresheet.

“He’s a smart player. It’s one of those things you can’t teach and you can’t coach. He reads the game the right way and, he’s one of those guys, the puck just finds his stick and he’s a natural goal scorer.”

Slow starts have been an issue for fourth-seeded Portsmouth much of the season and Friday was no exception. Ponaganset scored 61 seconds into the game on the third of three rapid-fire shots at Portsmouth goaltender Matt Nordhill.

“We only had one practice this week to try and prepare, so Nordy didn’t see as many pucks as he’s used to, and you could definitely see that a little bit with his rebound control,” Kriner said.

Schenck tied it at 4:38 of the first period — Tim Jackson and Cam Mello assisted — but No. 5 Ponaganset scored with 17 seconds left in the period to retake the lead. That, however, was the Chieftains’ last goal of the night.

Portsmouth controlled the action in the second period, outshooting Ponaganset 14-5 and burying in three goals, two from Schenck and one from Niklas Pedersen. Mello assisted on Schenck’s first goal, Connor Little and Nolan O’Brien were credited with assists on Pedersen’s and Isaiah Kittel and Matthew Marion had the assists on Schenck’s third goal of the night.

The Patriots scored five goals in one other game this season, in a 5-2 win over the Providence Country Day-Wheeler-St. Raphael co-operative team on Feb. 24.

“I thought it was going to be a low-scoring, tight game, but I knew we could beat them, and we did,” Schenck said. “Just love the teammates. They set up all those goals.”

All those goals came against one of the better goalies in the division in Ponaganset’s Curtis Briggs, who had been playing well of late.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for that kid. I just got the better of him tonight,” Schenck said. “Their goalie is outstanding, but other than that, I don’t think they can match us.”

The teams combined for nine penalties — five for Portsmouth, four for Ponaganset — but only one power-play goal. That came from Jackson, who put Portsmouth up 5-2 with 5:16 left in the third. The Patriots had a 5-on-3 opportunity after the Chieftains were called for contact to the head and crosschecking in a span of 42 seconds.

The two-man advantage lasted just eight seconds before Jackson, on assists from Pedersen and Mello, made it a three-goal lead.

“It was the little things that just needed a little bit of tweaking after a strange week for us, practice-wise, and having to play on Tuesday,” Kriner said of his team’s regular-season finale. “But the guys responded well and we were able to come out on top.”

Nordhill finished with 22 saves, but saw just 11 shots after the first period. Briggs had 27 saves and faced 24 shots in the second and third periods.

“Obviously we have an outstanding goalie in Nordhill, and we have a real solid core of juniors and seniors on defense,” Schenck said. “When they get hot, it’s impossible to get by them.”

That seemed to be the case in the latter two periods, but it took the Patriots a while to warm up, which is a concern, particularly in the postseason.

“Especially in the playoffs, as you saw with last night’s result (Rogers-Middletown-Rocky Hill’s 3-0 loss to North Kingstown), anybody can beat anybody,” Kriner said. “You definitely don’t want to go down 1-0 early if you run into a hot goalie. It’s something we’ve had to deal with all year and we talk about it on a daily basis. But hopefully when we show up on Sunday, we come out to a better start.”

The way the Patriots finished Friday’s game, they should have some momentum going into Game 2.

“I scheduled an hour of practice tomorrow. We’ll probably just go sticks and gloves and get the guys out there just to keep the touches and the edge work going,” Kriner said of Portsmouth’s preparation for the second game of the series. “The biggest thing I tell the guys every night, ‘Don’t let your highs get too high or your lows get too low.’

“It’s nice to open up and take the first one, but the business trip isn’t done, so it’s your chance to cash in on four points. We got two of them, we’ve still got two more to go.”

Krueger@NewportRI.com

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